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Tag: gingerbread

Yesterday I posted up an article on HTC’s statement saying that the HTC Desire will not be receiving an upgrade to Gingerbread. However, earlier today they changed their minds and have created a new post which says:

Contrary to what we said earlier, we are going to bring Gingerbread to HTC Desire

This is great news for everyone, all though of course they’ve not published any estimated release dates yet!

Bad news for all folks that have been eagerly waiting for news of the Gingerbread (2.3) update for the HTC Desire. Unfortunately HTC announced earlier today on their UK Facebook page that the HTC Desire will in fact not be receiving the long-awaited update to the latest version of the Android OS.

Our engineering teams have been working hard for the past few months to find a way to bring Gingerbread to the HTC Desire without compromising the HTC Sense experience you’ve come to expect from our phones. However, we’re sorry to announce that we’ve been forced to accept there isn’t enough memory to allow us both to bring Gingerbread and keep the HTC Sense experience on the HTC Desire. We’re sincerely sorry for the disappointment that this news may bring to some of you.

The reasoning might not appear to be most convincing to some users, especially considering that a number of 2.3 Sense ports for the Desire are already available on XDA, however it’s a shame for users who aren’t familiar or confident in rooting their phone and are forced to stick with the current installed version of Android on their HTC Desire.

I guess the biggest let down is the fact that at the start of this year HTC actually stated that the Desire WOULD be getting the Gingerbread update and got many of us impatiently waiting for June to arrive and bring us our ginger flavoured treat.

It’s a shame that the only real update HTC were able to provide Desire owners was Froyo, and that was only 2 months after the phone release date. Sad day for Desire owners, but I know plenty (including myself) are happy to use their phone as it is and will continue to use it for the foreseeable future.

Gingerbread Hits AOSP

Gingerbread is the latest version of Android (version 2.3). It’s currently unknown whether or not the HTC Desire will be getting it. However, the good news is that the source code for it has just been released on AOSP (Android Original Source Project), which means that it’s available for developers to download, tweak and compile for use on devices. We can expect custom ROMs to start being released over this weekend for the Desire from talented developers such as AdamG and RichardTrip who you can find in the Desire Development section of XDA-Developers.

Kindle For Android Version 2 Released

This morning users with the Kindle application will have received a new update in the Android Market for this application. The new update brings a series of new features, 2 of my favourites being scrolling through pages using the volume keys, and having the store accessible within the app instead of opening a new browser window. The full list of changes is as follows:

Newspapers and Magazine

Zoom into images

Integrated store

Share progress via Social Networks

Application now installable to SD Card

Bug fixes

I’ve noticed a Grid view, which I’m pretty certain wasn’t in the previous version

Need for Speed Shift Now in the Market

EA games has just released their Need for Speed Shift game into the Market. The official description being:

I guess they’re a little late as the latest console version is Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (also available on iPhone), but any 3D game being added to the Android Market is welcome by me.

If you want it, here’s the QR code for you to download it from the Market:

PlayStation Application for Android Coming Soon

Unfortunately, it won’t let you play PlayStation games on it, but it’s still useful in the sense that you can access your PlayStation Network (PSN) account to see your friends statuses, learn about new games and share news via social networks. Whilst that doesn’t sound like a lot, we’re promised lots of new features to come. You read more about it on the Official PlayStation Blog

Changes to the Android Market

The past few weeks have introduced several new changes to the Android Market, most of which you’ve already noticed but here’s a summary in case you haven’t:

Application descriptions can now be up to 4,000 characters long

There’s a field for recent changes

The refund time for applications is 15 minute instead of the previous 24 hours

Facebook Application Receives A New Update

As you can tell, this week’s mostly been about application updates. People on Facebook can enjoy a new update to the Facebook application which allows:

Chat

Push notifications. This is a lot better for battery life because it means the app works in the same way as Talk or Gmail. Instead of having to connect to the server every so often to check if there’s any new updates, Facebooks servers themselves send out an update to your phone as soon as the update becomes available.

Some bug fixes

Google App Inventor Beta Now Open to the Public

If you missed the previous announcement, App Inventor is a way for anyone to develop Android applications using a simple web browser based interface.